GROWTH PERFORMANCE, CRUDE PROTEIN, ETHER EXTRACT AND TOTAL ASH IN THE BREAST MUSCLE OF BROILER CHICKENS SUPPLEMENTED WITH PROBIOTICS

Abstract: An experiment was conducted to study the effect of dietary inclusion of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (0.1%), Lactobacillus sporogenes (0.1%), their combination (0.05 % and 0.05%) and Provilacc ® (0.1%) for different groups, on nitrogen retention in the form of crude protein, the ether extract and total ash in the breast muscle sample as the indicators of growth in broiler chickens. The weight gain, crude protein, ether extract and total ash were estimated at weekly intervals up to six weeks. There was significant (P < 0.05) difference in the body weight gain between probiotic supplemented groups and the control group from 21 day and onwards. But, there were no significant (P> 0.05) differences in the per cent of crude protein, ether extract and total ash in the breast muscle sample between different groups of broiler chickens suggesting that the chemical composition per unit mass was not evident for enhanced growth but it was suggestive that the gain in weight was due to increased length and mass